Half Of 99 Cents Equal 17

Can you Count? Half Of 99 Cents Equals 17. Look! Stop right where you are! Understand the math! 17 cents seems to be the normal pay for the vast majority of newbie authors in this 99 cent genre called Urban fiction.

As an author, I’d be the first one to tell you that I want my book out there at the top of the charts! However, as a grown-*ss man who has bills to pay I will not subjugate myself to these all-out Ponzi-Schemes that I see taking place on across social media, especially on Facebook. Therefore after educating myself, I decided to move away and reposition myself to better help myself while preparing a professional platform and training ground for would-be professionals who wanted to build a solid career for themselves at the same time.

First off, I would like to say for the record is, “Yes, I know what it feels like to have a bestseller on Amazon. My current book Who Am I? The Chronicles of Cain made it up to number 8 in the top one hundred under Mystery & Thrillers Categories, and number 11 under Urban Fiction without a single review, and I had re-released it twice prior to this. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until I took matters into my own hands that this took place.

Likewise, my next book Explain It to Her Momma ranked number 3 under Humor and boy was I surprised when I saw that my book was the only African American Urban fiction based novel to get there. And the great part about it was it didn’t take any hard planning at all. Besides that, my novel was also nominated as the best debut novel for 2014 by …angelinembishop.com among the 2015-finalists. And I did it all without the fake publishing companies who I applaud for being damn good at running Ponzi Schemes. I have much more that I could say about my achievements, but they are off topic.

Just Google my brother DJ “King Kut” Cheese, and you will see what runs in my bloodline or Melvin “Phantom Boyz” Watson. I’ll just say that at one time in my life people paid to see me shrimp and grit eating publishers, and when I call for a ride a Cadillac won’t do. But who needs to post wealth when writing is an intellectual form of achievement?
Fake Publishers

Wake Up Authors! 99 cents isn’t going to hack it! Not if you have real bills to pay. The million dollar question you should be asking yourself is are you game enough to play the stakes like Walmart when you aren’t calling the shots?

Yes, the mutha-you-know-what who probably started this 99 cent trend more than likely had a decent job and played the Walmart Corporate strategy on his/her competitors and then raised the prices once they were in the running alongside of them. With technology and a little know-how, every common man or woman can become a successful author in the matter of a few clicks. What? You don’t know how to write a book there’s enough software and free knowledge on the internet that I could produce a new book every damn day if I wanted to. But that’s not the way I was built. Need a quick slap and paste interview? I can make it happen. Need a quick ad I can make that happen too at no cost. As a matter of fact I have helped many who are struggling to succeed. And as a reward I am giving the first five people who read, share and post this article elsewhere interviews and ads as soon as soon as they send me a cover, a bio, and a decent picture to me using the contact form on the site. Also leave a comment on the site (#ShowLove). However, professionals take pride in their work they do things P-R-O-P-E-R-L-Y. Cheaper isn’t always better, especially when it leaves you broke.

The Math

Continuing in my rampant thoughts, I would like to show you the math in layman’s terms. These are the facts simple and true. The information is out there and all one needs is to do one thing. It’s something in which I find it strangely odd not to be happening. It’s viral and catatonic among authors who can’t seem to write their way out of third grade, and that is ladies and gentlemen; R-E-A-D! The fake publishers who like to post pictures of themselves with their BMW’s, Mercedes, etc. while eating nasty ass un-healthy shrimp and grits (I’m 46 and anyone will tell you my pics are real and recent) that will eventually clog their arteries giving them the painful deaths they deserve for taking advantage of masses who are usually, naïve young, miseducated, struggling mothers who have wonderful dreams of becoming successful authors. Some of these publishers have threatened these women, refused to pay-out royalties, and are trying to enforce bogus non-compliant contracts that have no bearing whatsoever. I have signed such and have beaten them every time because there is something that you should know but they keep it a secret. It’s called industry standards. Yes, as an author you are either an employee of your said publishing company who hired you out at (get this) 17 cents per book sold! Or, you are a self-published author who is an entity whether an LLC or you use your social security number as an identifier of your brand. Without an EIN number or a social security number, Amazon will not do business with you. Now that I have your attention if you would all like to continue to work at 17 cents per book (or 35 cents if you are the latter) keep typing and forget you have read this.

However, if you would like to know more, join us at iurban.org, READ and learn to become a professional author. Reading truly is fundamental in this game. What many have failed to realize that KDP is free, and with a little know-how you can produce a quality eBook, and paperback for less than one-hundred dollars. Yes, you have read it correctly. iUrban and my associates are producing a book that will show you how to publish and produce high-quality books for pennies on the dollar. Even my videos run about ten dollars apiece. But don’t get me wrong, my first book cost me well over 2 grand, and there’s a big difference in my videos and creativity in comparison to someone like my associate Videos by O. When you engage the services of others it costs, period.

For instance if you want reviews that don’t matter, asks your friends, and family. They will fill up the pages for you. I often laugh when I see poorly written books with three-hundred reviews. Why, because Amazon and neither the big named companies who have the networking capabilities care about biased and unverifiable reviews. We all have them and they are nice to see on a personal side. But to those that matter, stores such as Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, do not care. I see people balk at what they would pay for an interview. Google Kirkus and tell me what you think of their 425 dollar standard fee, Publishers Weekly, and others. Find a cheap Publicist who can get you signed by Penguin…, and I’ll show you what it’s like to be a horse’s *ss. These stores will not accept self-published books from Amazon or from the small-time publishers who like to throw Yacht parties and write articles about how much they make while using Createspace to sell big dreams to the unsuspecting while running Ponzi schemes and giving anyone who’s down with their scheme a company with their name on the paperwork. Google Authorhouse, and see how many names they use. Yes, many of majors do it as well. Except, they do it on a bigger scale. After charging you several thousand, and then demanding a cut from future sales just to imprint their off brand name onto your book such as Xlibris, Dog Ear Publishing, and such. Then try and swindle you out of more dollars with bs promotions that will get you absolutely no where unless you are paying them a really handsome sum. Does anyone have 15 grand lying around?

If Joyce Cheese didn’t raise her son with a heart and morals I’d put them down like yesterday. However, it’s your choice to make your dream happen. My goal is to eventually get a number one spot, build it slow and steady and keep it knowing I made it the right way. Each and every one of you can be a bestseller if you know how to manipulate Amazon’s system which is nothing more than an analytic algorithm and search engine. I have read articles and bought many books concerning this. It’s called reading, researching and relating.

For example, while browsing Amazon I saw two books. Both ranked well below mine that day. One ranked 588, 033 and the other at around 170,000 and yet both were top 100 books.They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Most of you who look at this will never understand but the picture below holds valuable information which I will later reveal to my members on iurban.org. The other book is by a well known author who is very active in the community whose name I will not reveal because it’s not important. As you can see Kim Kardashian the great Media whore knows how to hire someone who magically made a two star book into a bestseller, and yet, people wonder why Barnes & Noble won’t place their books on their shelvses even though YOU are a bestseller on the biggest sales website in the entire 2 billion plus populated cyber world.

Yes, by looking at someones ranking I can estimate approxiamately the number of books my competition is selling per day. It’s simple if you know how, and why many of you are scratching your head as to how Kim managed to do it, each and everyone of you can do it as well, although Amazon may penalize you severely in the process of doing so while turning a blind eye to her as I know for a fact they have. Her name being on their site is mor valuablle than yours I might add. However there is a legit way to do it and end up with comprisable results.

Adding The Sums Together

I’m going to leave you hanging on this and continue this article in another post. However in closing let me say this. One Facebook publisher I know has almost crumbled but yet is making a serious comeback. The company’s roster usually employs about 30 or so employees (authors). They average around 15 grand per month, and the majority of their books sale at an average of 99 cents. Therefore each of their authors brings in an average of around 430 dollars per month. The going rate of the average author is 50% of the 99 cent retail eBook sales which is 35 cents based on Amazon’s pay-out scale. You therefore have to split 35 cents with them which is 17 cents. Digressing a bit. Amazon gives the higher end priced eBooks that are between 2.99-9.99 an option of receiving a 70% to 35% royalty rate. For most which one to choose is a no brainer right? You go with the higher price. Wrong!

R-E-A-D the d**n policy. No business is going to take a loss. Amazon isn’t a billion dollar company because they want to give you the greater share of the profits while taking-in all the upfront costs. Unless you know what the hell you are doing you could actually end up making less than the 35% royalty rate even if your book is set to receive 70%!

How can that be, you may be wondering? There are HIDDEN fees involved such as the cost of an e-delivery, etc. (Read the policy they are not hidden for those of you who read). The way your book is formatted, and the content within can make the delivery fee shoot up exponentially which can cost you dearly.

Now back to the Facebook publishers who can convince the masses to work for them at the rate of an average of $215 dollars per month in order to provide them with an average of 7,500 per month on one company in conjunction with their other side capital ventures. Of, course we know the ones given these companies are not based on merits normally associated with hard, honest work. No, the merit system is based on who will lift their skirts the highest, who’s the most loyal, and will act like minions defending bad business practices.

With that said, I will leave it that. Stay tuned for more insight on the publishing world and the breakdown of Kim Kardashian’s book, the Ponzi theme, and what and how to read a contract, etcetera. Iurban provides you with the Real information you need to make it.

Check out more great articles in our column Controversial Diplomat.

P.S. Now some of you may realize why iUrban.org takes it’s time doing things the write way.

About The Author

A hip-hop recording artist, convict, father, and now urban author (Who Am I: The Chronicles of Cain, Caught Slippin, and Explain It To Her Mama), the managing editor of Urban.me and Urban refuge. In the '90s he was the first rapper to appear on the covers Black Beat and Teen Machine magazines, known at MC Cheese he recorded Phenomenal, Third Street, Angel of Death, Dime a Dozen, Come on Everybody.